This invention relates to protective athletic equipment, and in particular, to a neck guard and protector for reducing or eliminating neck injuries.
Body contact team sports such as football, hockey and lacrosse have progressed to a high degree of sophistication in recent years. With this progress, protective equipment has been developed for protecting many areas of the body, especially the head. Football helmets in particular have been developed to the point where they are sometimes used as a weapon, as well as for protection. Neck injuries, however, continue to plague contact sports players. There are various reasons for this.
As forces during a contact sports game are applied to a player's helmet from any and all directions, the neck is subjected to a variety of stresses including axial compression, flexion, extension, lateral bending, torsion and/or a combination of these. Axial compression stress will be defined as force exerted along the head's vertical axis, a force applied downward on the top of the head and through to the neck. Flexion stress will be defined as a forward and downward force exerted on the head, pushing the chin toward the chest. Extension stress will be defined as an upward force exerted on the chin causing a backward tilt of the head. Lateral bending stress will be defined as force exerted on the side of the head causing side-to-side tilting of the head. Torsion stress will be defined as a rotational force applied along the vertical axis of the neck.
When these forces are excessive or when a lack of training and conditioning of the player is present, injuries to the neck frequently result such as strained muscles, sprained ligaments and tendons as well as more serious damage to vertebrae, discs and nerves. These injuries, which on occasion can be fatal, manifest themselves in other forms both permanent and otherwise such as paralysis, headaches, neuritis, neuralgia, constant or intermittent pain, nausea, fainting, weakness, neck stiffness and the like. Compounding this problem are the newer plastic helmets which utilize suspended webbing and foam padding and are sometimes used as battering rams in the process of running, blocking and tackling, in a game becoming more intense and aggressive. Further aggravating the problem is the fact that players are becoming bigger and faster, thereby increasing the force of "hits" on opposing players. The present-day comfortable and efficient helmets serve to give players a feeling of security, which results in an increasing use of the head to force extra yards from a run or apply additional leverage in a block or tackle.
Neck injuries in body contact team sports result when the head is exposed to impact forces as described above, and the cervical vertebrae, discs, muscles, ligaments and/or tendons are damaged, sometimes permanently affecting the spinal cord and nerves. Blows are delivered to a player's helmeted head from all directions during a game, and among the most dangerous of these blows is the impact which causes extreme tension and compression in the cervical region. The application of force to the head of a player without neck protection is transferred directly to the player's neck, often causing injuries to the supporting structures previously listed.
One of the most commonly used neck protective devices is a sponge neck collar, i.e., "roll" collar. The roll collar normally comprises a horseshoe-shaped roll of sponge rubber which is worn around the rear and sides of a player's neck. The roll collar serves as a stop-gap between the player's head and shoulders to prevent lateral bending as well as extension and may give some protection against axial compression. In this manner, injuries due to extreme backward or lateral bending of the head to either side may be reduced.
However, the conventional sponge roll collar has serious limitations. One of the most dangerous situations for a player arises when the head is forced forward and downward by impact, i.e., flexion. This places a substantial and dangerous amount of posterior tension and frontal compression on the cervical vertebrae and discs. The roll collar does not prevent or reduce neck injuries caused when a player's head is violently rammed forward and downward into his chest, as often happens in a football game during a head-on tackle or pile-up. Nor does the roll collar protect well against direct blows to the frontal area of the neck. Moreover, because a properly fitted collar prevents extension and rotation movement beyond a predetermined position, it is often difficult or impossible for a player such as a lineman to wear a roll collar and still be able to get his head back or turned to the side to see his opponent.
Various modifications to the conventional roll collar have been made in the prior art in an attempt to overcome its basic limitations, including flattening of the roll collar's top surface. However, an even more significant problem with the conventional roll collar and the various prior art hybrids, is caused by the contact between the collar's top surface and the bottom edge portion of a wearer's helmet. Any frontal (upward), axial or lateral force will cause the helmet to cantilever about the top surface of a roll collar, regardless of whether the top surface is flat or rounded. Since the modern helmet is extremely rigid and snugly fitted about the wearer's head, the wearer's head will also cantilever. The cantilevering effect can exaggerate the forces applied to the neck, thereby exerting potentially excessive cervical tension and compression, resulting in serious injury. Because some roll collars are attached to the shoulder pads, hits to the shoulder pads can cause a reverse effect, i.e., force translated to the neck.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,720 to J. D. Fair attempts to solve the prior art roll collar cantilevering problem by providing a protective vest having a resilient upstanding collar. Although the collar portion of the Fair invention addresses the cantilevering problem it ignores the problem of a player's head being forced forward and downward by impact, i.e., it ignores axial compression and flexion blows to the head. There is even less axial support than the traditional roll collar. The Fair collar is also restrictive in that it is fixedly attached to the vest. This serves, not to dissipate the energy from a blow to the wearer's head, but to transfer that energy to other portions of the wearer's anatomy. Furthermore, the collar provides a whiplash counter effect when frontal forces are exerted to the wearer's face causing rapid extension of the head.